


Learning by Tongues

by nonky



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 05:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17739491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Prompt by stainofmylove for a LJ ficathon: Kara/Leoben - the world is sick, so kiss me quick





	Learning by Tongues

There was no grace or bearing in the Demetrius. It served a function as simple and complex as life itself. It took worthless rock floating outside the hull and processed it into useful materials. The chance inclusion of the freighter in their fleet of survivors had likely made the difference between living and dying at least once. It burned away everything else.

Kara felt like she was learning to do the same. They were on the right track, but the doorway stubbornly refused to show itself. She had a feeling maybe there was a right time - a dramatic eleventh hour turn that had to hinge on finding their way in the nick of time. She was tired of waiting.

The corridor was narrow, but she was narrower than her most starved. She had forgotten to eat most days, but it didn't bother her. She was running on the tails of comets and stars run amok. She wasn't quite human anymore. The stark rap of her knuckles on the hatch announced her to the other non-human on board.

Leoben was crouched with his head down, hands shackled behind him to a pipe that would hold even if he pulled with all his might. She nodded to the guard of her makeshift prison. How she'd risen in the world, from hotshot CAG to mad dictator. "Leave us. I'll call you."

The Marine sneered, but did as he was told. She was teetering on failure with her military discipline, and couldn't work up any worry over that. The pieces were drifting together in the sea of lies. If she watched, they would make a picture she could understand.

"Leoben," Kara said, sitting on the rail across from him. "Tell my why you're here."

His eyes rose straight to her face, no leer or dislike present. He beamed worship she didn't deserve. "Because you're here. I go where you go, always. As it was in the beginning, ever shall it be, amen."

She flinched at the scripture, and frowned. "What is that from? Where did you get that?"

He smiled, patiently. His sweetness grated on her worse than any beating. He was unerringly kind, even when he was killing her species. Even when he was holding a tiny hostage over her and calling her Kara's daughter.

"God told me," Leoben said calmly. "He tells me still, that you and I are bound together by fate. Our lives were meant to cross and bend away, and cross over again. I miss you when you are not in front of me, but I know I will see you once more."

Kara wanted to call him out and rage at the religious garbage he was vomiting. She wanted to call herself sane and believe it, so she could turn her back on all the things that made sense. There was a deep familiarity from him, and a twinge of belief when he voiced his predictions. It was only the same premonition she'd had the first time she'd seen Galactica, the first time she'd met Lee Adama. They would meet and part, like waves and seashore. What was gone now would return. It wasn't crazy when it came true.

Weakness poured through her muscles and she knelt on the metal grate. Her hands pushed flat to hold her down. She fought the heady weightlessness that followed her back from death.

"Why can't you explain it to me? If this is my destiny I should be able to recognize it myself."

Leoben gave what would have been a shrug with his hands unbound. "I cannot answer for God, but I know what I have seen. What are the odds you and I could meet more than once? What are the odds we would not be killed in our first meeting? Our people are at war. Even now you should be killing me. You hold some belief and it holds you back."

She closed her eyes and pictured clear blue skies from a cockpit. It helped clear her mind.

"Are humans and Cylons meant to find Earth together," Kara asked. "Are we destined to make peace?"

His mouth quirked up on one side, and he said, "Peace or death? Children and parents are always at war, but it's not from desire to kill each other. I think we all had to go much too far in order to learn the wisdom not to do so in the future."

She studied him, but there was no tell. He didn't lie to her, never had. She wished for the lies because they could be sorted out easier. The mix of religion, philosophy and robot logic was impossible to decode.

"I don't understand you," she said. "I listen to every word you say. I have dozens of angry soldiers outside that door who probably want both of us spaced. I made promises I'd take this ship and find our way to Earth. Can you help me, Leoben?"

He regarded her sadly, leaning forward as much as he could. She held her breath and her body surged toward his. Kara ended up straddling his lap, muffling curses on his neck. She threw her arms around him and kissed him desperately. Leoben plied her gently, soothing her with answering roughness when she demanded it.

She wished for the keys to let him out, and knew she was losing perspective. The imagined feel of his hands down her back, on her ass, was almost as real as the thrust of his tongue against her own. She clutched at his hair and rubbed her body on him, seeking the connection she had to denounce.

Kara didn't know why she was kissing him, except to add another perverse layer of confusion to her life. She didn't understand herself. It was a badge of dubious honour to defy the way Lee and the old man picked her apart. They would never understand her choosing to kiss this Cylon, her kidnapper, and it made a vital drive out of a taboo.

He was one of the pieces floating into her path, moving with glacial speed into the larger picture. To know him was to know part of her destiny. It was enough.


End file.
